The Grand Tour Season 2

The first season of The Grand Tour was a bit of a roller-coaster ride. Fans were overjoyed with emotion during the very-expensive but stunningly-shot opening sequence. Then by the next episode they were tired of the Special Ops skit that went far too long with overly forced humor. By the end of the season, we had a pretty mixed bag of highlights and lowlights. Now season 2 is coming up, so what can we expect to see next?

A Quick Recap?

First, a bit of history. As fans of the original Top Gear already know, leading The Grand Tour are its creators, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. The show doesn’t stray too far from what you’d expect on Top Gear. They take gentleman tours through Italy, test-drive extremely powerful and incredibly expensive cars on their test track, and jab at each other in the studio. Throw in some random skits, and you’ve got the show.

Unlike Top Gear though, this show highlights a different city each episode. Using a massive traveling tent, the show filmed in multiple locations, including Johannesburg, Lapland, Rotterdam, Stuttgart, Whitby, Scotland, California, Nashville and Dubai.

Season Two

The show’s highly anticipated second season has already begun production, with its release scheduled for late 2017. Based on the trailer Amazon just released, it seems we’re in for more of the same as season 1 — British gents using the pretense of fast cars and humor to basically do whatever they please — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since season one has received high praise and positive reviews.

Still, many fans are hoping they make some improvements. One main complaint was the lack of direction and focus. Another was the forced-humor that fell flat. For example, they had a driver simply called “The American” who was simply there to make jokes about American stereotypes. Funny for a few minutes, maybe, but not show after show after show. Very few would be surprised if he didn’t return.

Another thing that needs to go is the Celebrity Brain Crash bit. If you missed it, they invited celebrities to come on the show, but then would show them getting “killed” before they made it in. Again, funny the first few times, but doesn’t deserve a return for the next season.

One episode which will certainly draw ratings will be when they discuss Richard Hammond’s near-fatal crash. He’s came out and talked about it before, but it will be fascinating to see the show’s view on what happened on that day.

A huge change from last year is that the tent is no more. That slightly weakens the title of the show, since it’s not much of a tour anymore, but the constant logistical nightmares of finding a place for the massive setup just became too much. You can expect to see them at the same studio for every episode in season 2.

Final Thoughts

While some may expect a sophomore slump from the show, I believe they’ll have learned from a few early mistakes and create a show that’s an even bigger improvement. Either way, we’ll find out soon.